Jarman Harold's attorney, Sam Sibley, filed a motion requesting a new trial in Richmond County Superior Court. Mr. Harold and five others were convicted Nov. 30 of violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Attorneys for each of the six men convicted at the conclusion of a two-month criminal trial have repeatedly indicated the men will appeal the convictions.

Mr. Harold, Charles D. Winters, Kendric Dudley, Ronnie B. Overton Jr., Ronald Coleman Jr. and Carlson W. Coleman were each convicted of the RICO charge and sentenced this month to the maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Among the underlying crimes in the RICO charge was the July 24, 1997, conspiracy to kill Ryan J. Singh, 21, and Manuel B. Arroyo, 19.

The bodies of the two Augusta men were found in the trunk of a burned car in rural Warren County on July 24, 1997. Each had been shot in the head. According to the prosecution's theory at the trial, the two friends were targeted because the six men believed Mr. Singh and Mr. Arroyo had set up Ronald Coleman and Mr. Winters for a robbery.

The Richmond County jury also convicted the two Mr. Colemans, who are not related, of kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary, hijacking a motor vehicle and a weapons charge in the June 21, 1998, robbery and abduction of Sam's Club Manager David Holt, 45. The two Colemans received maximum sentences for those crimes - two consecutive life sentences plus an additional 65 years in prison.

Firefighters found Mr. Holt's body in the trunk of his burned car on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River on Father's Day 1998. That same morning, employees found the Sam's Club on Bobby Jones Expressway unlocked. Someone had taken $62,000 in cash and the store's video surveillance tapes from June 20 and 21, 1998.

No suspects had been publicly named in either Mr. Holt's slaying or the double homicide of Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Singh until this spring, when the Richmond County grand jury issued the indictment against the six RICO defendants.

Prosecutors for Warren County and Aiken County have said recently they intend to discuss the case with Augusta prosecutors before deciding whether murder charges should be brought in those counties.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.